Star World Champions win 2007 Bacardi Cup

New Zealand’s Hamish Pepper, the current Star Class World and North American champion, sailing this week with his crew and coach David Giles of Australia, won the 2007 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta Friday on the waters of Biscayne Bay, near Miami.

Despite the duo’s seventh place in today’s final race of the six-day series, Pepper and Giles held on to their first place overall to win the coveted Trofeo Bacardi in one of the most prestigious Star Class events in the world.

German sailors Matthias Miller and crew Manuel Voigt won Friday’s Day Six race, just ahead of their countrymen Marc Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski who took second place honors. With their Day Six victory, Miller and Voigt edge out Bermuda’s Peter Bromby, a two-time Bacardi Cup champion, and crew Bill McNiven for sixth place in the final standings, while Pickel and Borkowski finish the regatta in fifth overall.

Crew, David Giles (AUS) won the 2007 Bacardi Cup after 18 years of Star sailing.

Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the Finn Class, and crew Dominik Zycki finished 11th Friday and drop to third in the final standings, while Australia’s Iain Murray and crew Andrew Palfrey finished fourth Friday and remain in fourth overall.

Kusznierewicz and Zycki failed to pick up an early shift and fell outside the top 10 at the first windward mark; they would not recover. With the Polish duo out of contention, Pepper and Giles followed Loof and Ekstrom closely on the right side of the course, tacking and jibing almost simultaneously on every subsequent leg.

'We were stuck in the middle,' said Kusznierewicz. 'Pepper and Loof got a shift from the right and the other guys got it from the left. It was tough out for us out there today.'

Loof and Ekstrom led at the third mark, followed closely by Pepper and Giles, although both boats would be overtaken by a late charge from the fleet. At the fourth and final mark, five boats separated the overall leaders, but Loof and Ekstrom simply could not put any additional boats between them.

'We couldn’t shake him,' said Loof. '[Pepper] was just counting boats and staying close to us.'

'When [Loof] and I were in the lead, I thought it would be easier, but all of a sudden, the pressure came off and we were swallowed up by a bunch of other guys,' said Pepper. 'That’s when it started getting tricky. It was a tough, long race. To win a Bacardi Cup is special. [Giles] has seen so many other people drink from that cup; now it’s our turn,' he added.

David Giles (AUS) and Hamish pepper (NZL) after winning the Bacardi Cup

The prestigious Trofeo Bacardi was presented to the winners dockside where skipper, crew and Jose 'Tito' Argamasilla Bacardi, the retired former vice president of public relations at Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., drank Bacardi Rum from the Cup in an annual tradition that dates back to the first Bacardi Cup Regatta sailed in Cuba in the 1927.

David Giles was presented with the 'Tito Bacardi' Cup, a special cup that was created last year to honor the crew of the winning team.